Katie from Hacker Dojo was mentioning they&#39;d put together a complete open source package for managing things, including payment tracking and so forth that they&#39;re interested in sharing. It might not be a bad idea, and foster a bit of goodwill if we at least had a look at that, don&#39;t you think?<div>
<br></div><div>The problem may already be solved for us.</div><div><br></div><div>Christie</div><div>_______<br>&quot;Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.&quot; -- Albert Einstein<br>

<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Rachel McConnell <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:rachel@xtreme.com">rachel@xtreme.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
It&#39;s all done by hand right now, there&#39;s no automation. I mean the bank<br>
account (and paypal, etc) tracks that $X has shown up, but there isn&#39;t<br>
any system to associate it with a particular member. Sometimes a<br>
payment comes with a note; if it&#39;s a check you have to go look at the<br>
name on the check, etc.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
jim wrote:<br>
&gt; Y&#39;all have reminded me of payment, so there must<br>
&gt; be some tracking in place, yes?<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; On Wed, 2010-06-16 at 10:29 -0700, Rachel McConnell wrote:<br>
&gt;&gt; I like this in theory but in practice it would be folly to officially<br>
&gt;&gt; promote it until we have an accounting system that can support it.<br>
&gt;&gt; Already we don&#39;t know who is paid up and who isn&#39;t; work is underway on<br>
&gt;&gt; a system to manage this but let&#39;s get it working first before we make<br>
&gt;&gt; massive changes to it.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; Rachel<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; jim wrote:<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; (seems like a discussion of policy.)<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; per the proposal and the points:<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; * how much to discount for a one year pre-payment seems<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; the difficult part: too little and no one goes for it;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; too big and we miss out on possible income; variable<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; (maybe within some limits, hoping for generosity) may<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; work....<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; * if we don&#39;t have a &quot;real accounting system&quot;, as long<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; as we can track payments with respect to members, this<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; seems a non-issue. for example, i pay by the quarter<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; and haven&#39;t had any problems. if a payment is recorded<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; as income for the current month, is there a tax<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; implication?<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; * we should certainly try to help our current cash<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; crunch&quot;; the overall downward trend scares me.<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; * grabbing a year&#39;s supply of money may help the<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; initially excited retain their interest over a longer<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; time period, which seems an additional value.<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; * i&#39;m not convinced of your arithmetic, but certainly<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; money today is worth a fair amount more than money<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; some later day, especially if there&#39;s some question<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; about getting money on those later days. a real<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; answer to this might help settle the discount problem.<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; On Wed, 2010-06-16 at 09:49 -0700, Shannon Lee wrote:<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Hi All,<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; This idea has been brought up at several meetings now and no<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; satisfactory resolution reached, so obviously it&#39;s time to expand the<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; conversation!<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; The specific proposal brought up last night was this:<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; If you pay your dues a year at a time, you can knock $20 off. Or one<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; month&#39;s dues off. Or some amount of money.<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Many perspectives were voiced on this. I think it&#39;s a good idea;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; others disagreed, primarily because, as we do not have a real<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; accounting system, this amounts to counting a year&#39;s dues as this<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; month&#39;s revenue.<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Again, I think this is a good idea, for the following reasons:<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; * it could help with our current cash cruch<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; * it means that people who get very excited about noisebridge for just<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; long enough to be members and then never show up again have the<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; opportunity to pay a whole year&#39;s membership upfront<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; * the economic value of a bird in one&#39;s hand is double that of a bird<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; in a bush<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Thoughts?<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; --<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Shannon Lee<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; (503) 539-3700<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; &quot;Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.&quot;<br>
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